tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32056296308269707102024-03-27T11:02:00.319-05:00Let Justice RingTelling stories in the search for justice for the oppressed and marginalizedWaymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.comBlogger392125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-77527670722676214982024-03-14T12:28:00.004-05:002024-03-14T12:33:25.903-05:00Status of Black Farmers Across the US and Texas<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Recently a Black farmer was </span><a href="https://blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">interviewed about the
challenges</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> of farming while Black in America. He replied with a touch of
humor and sadness in his voice that we are losing so many Black farmers that we
ought to put them on the endangered species list.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">In the early
decades following freedom, Black Americans became prolific land owners, the
peak of which was reached in the early 1900s. Approximately 950,000 Black farm
operators owned 22,000 farms, worked 47,000,000 acres, and owned 19,000,000
acres. While these numbers paled by comparison to white farmers, they were </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/waymo/OneDrive/Desktop/DOCUMENTS%20FOR%20THE%20CAUSE%202023/US%20census%20records%20as%20cited%20in%20https:/onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12233" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">staggering
evidence</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> that Black farmers violated a tenant stated by </span><a href="https://blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">the wife of a Black
farmer</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">, “We were intended to work the land, but not to own the land.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Dispossession soon
began to occur. </span><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/04/the-machine-that-eats-up-black-farmland/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">The
number of Black agrarians dropped precipitously over decades. While white
ownership remained relatively stable, Black ownership dropped ultimately by
90%.</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Highlights/2019/2017Census_Black_Producers.pdf" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Currently,
there are 35,470 Black-operated farms with 4.7 million acres, or 0.5%</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> of
the nation-wide farm land total. The precipitous drop from 47 million acres to
4.7 million is staggering as is the drop from 950,000 to 35,470 Black
producers. It is estimated that the value of the losses of land and the value
of production from </span><a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20221015" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">the land
between 1920 and 1997 were approximately $326 billion</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">. What a loss in
generational wealth.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">But what about
Texas? We have more Black producers than any other state. There are currently 11,268
Black producers who farm 972,552 acres. This amounts to 3% of the state’s total
farm producers. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">Smith and Freestone
Counties each have over 300 Black-operated farms. While statistics are lacking,
essentially Black farmers do not trust USDA, so they avoid funding
opportunities and services by USDA as they farm smaller parcels or focus on
smaller cow/calf operations. In recent years, however, at least one Black
farmer successfully prevailed against the USDA and its discriminatory
practices, and another family had its debts canceled by USDA’s agency, the
Family Service Agency, under current USDA/FSA policies. What has impacted Black
farming across the country has certainly impacted Black farmers in Texas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">USDA
has readily admitted that their programs and personnel discriminate against
Black farmers, especially at the county committee level, but the Department refuses
to address it. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2022/08/farming-while-black-in-america-against.html">The
list is long and painful</a>. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12233">The USDA
refuses to supervise the county committee</a> and thus, Black farmers do not
get the support they need for loan applications, technical support, disaster
relief, and loan restructuring and much, much more. The result is foreclosure
and loss of land and livelihood. On one occasion the check written by the USDA
was held in a file folder until the land was foreclosed upon and the farming
operation was gone. The land was bought by an adjacent white farmer. This only
scratches the surface of the acts of discrimination that occur. In 2022 the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/19/1156851675/in-2022-black-farmers-were-persistently-left-behind-from-the-usdas-loan-system#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20department%20granted,easiest%20to%20get%20at%20USDA.">USDA
approved white farmers loans at a rate of 72%, but Black farmers at a 36% rate.</a>
Black farmers received only .01% of covid relief funds despite making up 5% of
all farmers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Certainly,
farming is a hard business, but it should not be more difficult because of the
color of one’s skin. The pain and suffering experienced by Black farmers are indescribable.
<a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/04/the-machine-that-eats-up-black-farmland/">Fighting
against the system which refuses to change</a>, and facing one microaggression
after another has resulted in emotional, relational, and physical damages to
persons and family members. Farmers often weep when recounting the damages in
their bodies causes by persistent racism within USDA. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
USDA and Congress have made attempts to change but all to no avail. Fifteen
Black farmers prevailed against the USDA between 1997 and 1999. Pigford I and
Pigford II which stretched from the late ‘90s well into the early 2000s were
failed efforts. Reports such as the Jackson Lewis Report, the D. J. Miller
Report, the Civil Rights Action Team Report, and the Civil Rights
Implementation Team Report, and of late the Equity Commission Report, and
others, but racism continues unabated. There must be a will to make changes
that harm people and destroy livelihoods. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Congressional
actions including <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ2/PLAW-117publ2.pdf">the American
Rescue Plan Act of 2021</a> and <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ169/PLAW-117publ169.pdf">the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022</a>, both promised much, but delivered little
to Black farmers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yes,
distrust has been well earned and well documented. There must be hope, and the bill
recently proposed, <a href="https://jonathanjackson.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/jonathanjackson.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/rep.-jonathan-l.-jackson_just-act-bill-text.pdf">“Just
USDA Standards and Transparency Act of 2023”</a> along with <a href="https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s96/BILLS-118s96is.pdf">the Justice
for Black Farmers Act of 2023</a>, offer much to Black farmers in efforts to
root out racism and to promote transparency and accountability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">W</span>hat
are advocates doing? They are appealing to the White House for changes within
the leadership of the USDA, appealing directly to the Secretary of the USDA for
more transparency and accountability, challenging the county committee system,
and challenging the manner in which funds for discrimination are allocated
under the IRA of 2022. They lobby various congressionals including Elizabeth
Warren, Corey Booker, and Raphael Warnock. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2023/03/blind-spot-let-me-look-again.html">They
held a one-day march in front of the White House back on March 1.</a> This is a
righteous cause for this group of people. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trust
must be restored nation-wide and here in Texas. Farmers are vital to our
economy and our way of living. Black farmers are equally important to our way
of life and must be treated fairly and equitably. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-86374430958356601362024-03-05T11:17:00.003-06:002024-03-10T08:59:14.838-05:00Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock: Step, Stand, and Stay with Us, An Open Letter<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">February 25, 2024</span></p>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Honorable Raphael
Warnock, Ph.D.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">407 Auburn Avenue<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Atlanta, GA 30312<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">416 Russell Senate
Office Building<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Washington, DC
20510<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Senator
Warnock:<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is a pleasure
to worship with Ebenezer each Sunday morning and especially today with the
preaching of Olu Brown. Besides growing up in the same region of East Texas, he
and I share in common a concern for the gospel and for people.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">My “transition” to
Ebenezer took place several months back when two things happened: 1) my
physicians told me to stay out of crowds lest I contract a disease and die and
2) my growing discontent with a white church with a smattering of Black sisters
and brothers and a growing shift to the right and a lack of interest in
engaging important matters in our larger community.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Besides our mutual
degrees in theology, you and I share a deep concern for all to be included at
the table and all to be included in farming across this great land of ours. I
understand that you have been instructed by the writings of James Cone and
Howard Thurman. I have only come to embrace their writings and ways of thinking
and living in my senior years. As you share inside information as a member of
the Senate Agriculture Committee, I share a deep concern for the mistreatment
of Black farmers at the hands of USDA. Since 1995 I have listened to injustices
perpetrated upon Black farmers, I have heard and heard again of the pain and
suffering that farmers and their families experience at the malfeasance of
USDA/FSA that lands squarely in their laps. As a board member of BFAA, Tillery,
NC, and as a representative of the Justice for Black Farmers Group and as a
co-laborer with Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority
Employees, I have had the pleasure and the pain of advocating on behalf of
Black farmers and families at a whole different level, one upon which you live,
move, and breathe. My speeches, publications, blogposts, and even a documentary
are easy enough to find.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">In Reverend
Brown’s sermon this morning, as he touched on the three actions of faith as
exemplified by the Israelites there at the Jordan: Step, Stand, and Stay, I was
convicted that such actions can easily apply to the Black Farmer Movement by
the farmers themselves, by advocates like me, and by congressionals with power
like you.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those three
actions exemplify the Black farmers and advocates. We stepped out in faith that
their cause was a worthy cause, convinced that Black farmers had been kicked to
the curb since the earliest days of USDA, and likewise convinced that the
investigative reporting verified the horror stories that we had heard for
decades. We have moved into standing. We would not be moved by a different
administration. We were unmoved by the rhetoric of promises following by a
display of inaction. We are unmoved by the cherry-picking of USDA and its debt
relief while Black farmers lose their land. And we have stayed. We stay as our
people die. One of my studies has been the impact of the micro and
macro-aggressions of the county office on the health and well being of farmers
and families. You have heard of the death of some: Eddie and Dorothy Wise and
Eddie Slaughter, just to name three. While we have life and breath, we will
stay in the struggle. While we have life and breath, we will stay until racism
has been removed from USDA and until all of God’s children are treated with the
same dignity, respect, and funding for farming.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">We wrote you a
letter on March 4, 2021. That letter is attached to this letter for your
convenience. The tragedy is that much has stayed the same. Things have not
changed for the better the last three years for Black farmers. In fact, we
think things are actually worse and land loss and its tragedies happen right
before our very eyes.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">We are asking that
you step, stand, and stay with us. We respectfully ask that you meet with us
and discuss the current status of Black farmers and that you work with us to
find avenues of remediation. Avenues and actions are there: the Justice for
Black Farmers Act should be enacted, greater transparency and accountability
should be mandated for the USDA, Black farmers should receive the same benefits
as any farmer in terms of funding for farming and farm operating loans and
other matters, loss of land and livelihood must cease, and the White House and
USDA must declare and show with actions that Black farmers from New York, down
through the South, across to Texas and then the Midwest, and across the
Southwest, and even to California and the western states all matter, Black the
same as white in all matters related to farming.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thank you for
reading this letter. We eagerly await your response and an opportunity to meet
with you.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Respectfully,<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">----<i>S</i>----<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Waymon R. Hinson,
Ph.D.<br /></span><a href="http://www.letjusticering.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">www.letjusticering.blogspot.com<br /></span></a><a href="http://www.blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">www.blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com<br /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Psychologist/Marriage
and Family Therapist<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Advocate/Researcher<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Representative for
BFAA, Justice for Black Farmers Group, and<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>USDA Coalition of Minority Employees<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">903-271-4654<br /></span><a href="mailto:Waymon.hinson@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Waymon.hinson@gmail.com<br /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">CC: Lawrence Lucas<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corey Lea<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Michael Stovall</span></div>
Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-10718554011815270432024-02-20T14:25:00.001-06:002024-02-20T14:25:05.398-06:00Let Justice Ring: Courage, Its Face, Its Sounds<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2017/02/courage-its-face-its-sounds.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: Courage, Its Face, Its Sounds</a>: What does it look like How does it sound; Its smell is like what, It comes when and how? To speak a word of truth ...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-87174586619097827072024-01-15T18:59:00.008-06:002024-01-24T11:13:13.781-06:00Mental Meanderings on the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. <h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">For some reason, and for that reason or reasons I am not quite sure, my mind has drifted off and on back to Frederick Douglass' July 4th speech which was actually delivered on July 5, 1852. In that lengthy presentation he lined out the history of freedom and all it surely means to Americans as they had escaped tyranny of the British. Against the celebrations that occur on July 4th, he posed the question, "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?" He proceeded to answer in no uncertain terms: "To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery." <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1852-frederick-douglass-what-slave-fourth-july/">For the entire speech, you'll find it here.</a> </span></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">What, you may ask is the point of that paragraph? Good question. </h4><div><br /></div><div>I have been pondering of late this particular Monday in January as the day of celebration for the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And I ponder how it is celebrated by whom. Likewise, I ponder who thinks favorably of Dr. King in this day and age, some 56 years after his assassination and 61 years after his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" there on the mall in DC. </div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div>Back in those days, as I recall, from my childhood, which can certainly be flawed, people saw him as a liberal, a communist, a social gospeler, and a trouble maker. Nowadays, his ratings continue to climb such that most of America seems him favorably, even to those on the right in this division of the country, and more so over on the left. </div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">What do I do if I revere the man and his message? Do I close my office if I am a church leader or a business owner? Do I take the day as a day of service, unlike any other national holiday? Do I speak of him on the Sunday prior to the national holiday on Monday? Who is most likely to speak of him from the pulpit and who is least likely to speak of him on that preceding Sunday? As an aside, I wonder if attitudes toward these questions could in some way be consistent with how individuals and churches approach Juneteenth. Just wondering. </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">So, thinking a tad more personally now, I want to do something meaningful today. I want this day to be a different day than all other Mondays. </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">And so, you might ask, "What did you do today that is in keeping with Dr. King's birthday?" </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thank you for asking. </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">I did five things: 1) I listened to quite a few speeches and sermons of his. 2) I listened most intently and even found the manuscript to his sermon entitled "Guidelines for a Constructive Church" and read through the text. 3) I pondered the application of those words and ideas from that sermon to today's church, the church broadly speaking and the local church that I'm still a member of. 4) I did some editorial work for a promo that will soon be used to spotlight a transition that we are making for a Thursday night broadcast on blog talk radio, a program called "Seeking Truth and Justice," led by Lawrence Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, and Representative, Justice for Black Farmers Group. And 5) I am now putting things onto the cyberpage of "blogspot" in order to share with you my reflections.</span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dr. King preached the sermon "Guidelines for a Constructive Church" on May 29, 1966, and according to the historians, at that time he was a marked man. He had about 700 days left to live. As many of commented, he had a sense of knowing about his early departure from this earth, and he was not afraid </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">So, on that particular Sunday, as he preached to Cornerstone Baptist Church, and now to us, still, in 2024, he was eerily prophetic. His words are captivating, how he can turn a phrase, and how he is able to draw illiterations from the words as they proceed from his vocal cords. A side bar curiosity is this: if you follow the text of his sermon while listening to him speak, you'll get lost. He ad libs a lot. </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">For the most part, his sermon is drawn from Luke 4, Jesus' appearance in the synagogue at the beginning of His ministry as He quotes from the prophet Isaiah 61. Dr. King has three distinctive movements from this text, all woven with current political events paralleling with words for the church. First, Jesus' words are spoken such that the Church must know that its mission is to care for the brokenhearted, the exhaustion that comes from living, an exhaustion he knew all too well. Second, he encourages the Church to preach the gospel to the poor, to the marginalized of the world. The audience is challenged to see the gap between the haves and the haves not. Third, the Church is to "preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Every year, and in every moment in time, that moment falls within the "acceptable year of the Lord." He perpetually faced "history stoppers," but he was a "history maker," and we are to do and be the same. </span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">For a look at <a href="https://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/2014/january/martin-luther-king-jr-guidelines-for-constructive-church.html">the transcript of his sermon</a>, look here, but be prepared for his ad libs. They are oftentimes the best. At those times, in my opinion, he is most prophetic and eloquent. If you want to listen to his sermon, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CvMMLOGFcPmhYmyEsIn0v">you can find it here. </a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Dr. King's words seem to be rather prophetic. Spoken in 1966 and here we are in 2024, and how far have we come? If you are a Black American, you'll say not far enough. If you are a white American, you'll say that we've come pretty far. </div><div><br /></div><div>My concern is for the church and for us who make it up, how well are we doing with applying Luke 4:</div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "Chronicle SSm A", "Chronicle SSm B", serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "Chronicle SSm A", "Chronicle SSm B", serif; font-size: 16px;"><b><i>"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">How are we doing with preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, preaching deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those that are bruised, and at preaching the acceptable year of the Lord?</span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;">And I hope some sister is over there on the first or second or third row calling out, "Make it plain! Make it plain! Make it plain!"</span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-13185203265729682262024-01-12T19:48:00.001-06:002024-01-12T19:48:24.740-06:00Let Justice Ring: Then He Went to Church<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2019/04/then-he-went-to-church.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: Then He Went to Church</a>: On Monday he ignored a loan application from a Black farmer Then on Sunday he went to church. On Tuesday he changed the farmer's farm...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-14084099450905586972024-01-11T17:23:00.005-06:002024-01-12T12:43:35.182-06:00Stories of Baseball, Black Farmers, and the Young<p>I am a fan of stories. I love stories. It's been said that we live in and through our stories and that they give us meaning. We will not remember the three key points of a recent speech or sermon, but we will remember the stories told to flesh out the points. </p><p>A long time ago when my oldest grandson was eight years of age, three generations of family sat in a favorite restaurant talking about things of interest, and then the little boy who was sitting across the table reading his book asked me a question, "Why do you work with Black farmers?" Didn't know he was listening. How do you answer a complicated question like that in words a child can answer. Was he really asking about his Poppie, or was he asking about them? I took the them route and simply told him, "because they have been mistreated." He seemed satisfied with the answer. In the years since then we have deconstructed in painful ways how Black farmers in fact have been mistreated. <a href="https://letjusticeroll.blogspot.com/2007/11/good-question.html">Here is more of that story written in 2007</a>, if you'd care to read it. </p><p>Several months later, the setting and topics changed but the questions remained. We were at this little guy's house and he was curious about Negro League baseball. How he landed on the topic is beyond me at this point. It might have been a wonderful book we were looking through by <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-are-the-ship-kadir-nelson/1100548463">Kadir Nelson, "We Are the Ship," the history of Negro League baseball.</a> The grandson wanted to know about Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and others. For a young child, he wanted to know why Black baseball players could not play in the major leagues against white ball players back then. So, we had a simple conversation about race and justice and inequality. To memorialize the conversation, or so my memory reminds me, he actually drew for me a picture of Paige standing on the mound. That book by Nelson and that work of art by my grandson are prized treasures in my collection. <a href="https://letjusticeroll.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-must-start-with-young.html">Here is the rest of that story</a>. You can even see the cover of Nelson's book and the drawing of Satchel Paige. </p><p>And then just last week another question came from an eight year old grandson. It shocked me. For some reason, I was showing him some photos of the March 1 protest event in front of the White House. He was impressed that his Mema was carrying a sign. I showed him a picture of Reverend Binion and told him a little of his story. I pointed out Lawrence Lucas and shared a few details about him and my relationship with him. I pointed to Willie Head and told about meeting him a lot of years ago and talking with him. I pointed in several pictures to the White House in the background. </p><p>You may remember a story about this little guy from a few years back. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2021/04/dear-grandson.html">You can read the letter that I wrote to him back in 2019.</a> You can even see his little hand holding up the sign, "Black Lives Matter." If you saw the complete picture, you would see him chanting that phrase with intensity on his face. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wrote to him these words:</span> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Y<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">ou have been a part of something huge. You are only five years of age, and you likely do not get it now. You do what five year-old kids do, you read, run, pretend, build forts, play with your sisters, eat Poppie Snacks with me, sit next to your Mema and watch Paw Patrol, and make pretend things out of your food."</span></b></span></p><p>But on this particular day, some four or five years after marching in that protest march, he asked me a heavy question while we looked through the photos on the web: <b>"Poppie are you and Mema important?"</b> I was stunned by his question, so I stammered a couple of minutes about knowing people and them knowing us and all, and simple left it there. Then, a few minutes later, I talked to Charla, his Mema. Her reply to me was simply put: "we're not important but the Cause is." Wish I had had those words at the moment. </p><p>The next morning, over breakfast, I reminded him of his question. He remembered asking it. It was then that I said, <b>"Mema and Poppie are not important, but the Cause is important." </b>I had his attention so I attempted to say in words and phrases he could understand that Black farmers and white farmers are not treated the same. White farmers get all the money they need to farm, but Black farmers don't. When Black farmers cannot pay back their loans, men come and take away their tractors and sometimes even sell their houses and their land. I think in his young, innocent way he got it. </p><p>I have a feeling that this young man and I will talk again. </p><p>Sometimes the young grasp things more quickly than us older folks. </p><p>Until we have the next conversation, my grandson will continue to read things, watch videos with his Poppie, play with his sisters, skate out front in the street with his dad and sisters, and other kid things.</p><p>I can be patient. I can wait for the next conversation. He is already good at asking perceptive questions. </p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-27595911121440220212023-12-11T11:00:00.006-06:002023-12-13T11:39:14.544-06:00O Come, O Come, Emmanuel<p>There is something very different about this season of the year. My wife and I have chosen to celebrate Advent, the coming of the Christ child in our home by reading scripture, praying, and pouring over meditations that friends or acquaintances from Abilene Christian University have written. Our church tradition has NEVER celebrated Advent, with the exception of the church we attended in Abilene back in the day. And, I find that very odd. </p><p>Something is different this year. I feel a stirring within me. </p><p>I ponder the differences between this year and last year or the year before or the year before that. I suspect that there are several things that make for a difference this year. For the first time, obinutuzumab is coursing through my veins. I get it every week or two weeks, sitting in an infusion room for four or five hours as the drip, drip, drip, drip makes its way down the bag, via the tube, into my IV, and into my body. It leaves me very exhausted. One nurse said that it is cumulative. I believe her. It has a mind of its own. Some days the effects are minimal and others I barely drag around. </p><p>Then, in about two or three weeks from now, I'll begin taking a pill form of immunotherapy, a pill called ventaxlata, and I hear it will be rougher than the IV drug. We'll see. </p><p>My wife and I are cautious as to where we go and when we go and whether we wear masks or not. I've learned that the only two people who are concerned about my body and its low level of immunity are she and I. I do not go to large gatherings, especially gatherings where I suspect that the setting is a petri dish for COVID or RSV or the flu.</p><p>Why do I say all of this? Is it an introduction to a larger story? </p><p>The short verse is that I was stirred by a podcast from Ecclesia Houston, a message delivered by Sean Palmer, a teaching pastor there, a minister who was at ACU as a student back in the day when Charla and I were there. We know some of the same people and know some of the same stories. </p><p>His message which is linked below, is about magi coming to worship the Christ child. Against all odds, they found the child, bowed down and worshipped and left the child with gold, frankencense, and myrrh, not exactly gifts you'd think to leave a child, or to his father or mother. How about sanitary wipes, diapers, formula, baby clothes, or even a toy that rattles. </p><p>They knew to head in the opposite direction from Herod who may have come across as a benevolent King, but they knew better.</p><p>Frankly, that is where I am this year. In my weakened state, I can only give what I can give to the Christ child. I can only do what I can do. No more no less. One of the gifts I oftentimes bring is the gift of words in prose or poetry form, but this year, more often than not, those words do not coming. </p><p>The cancer in my blood, small cell lymphacytic lymphoma, and the medications to treat it, have consumed more often than not my words, emotions, dreams, and wishes. </p><p>During this season, I want to offer to the newborn King words of hope on behalf of a marginalized people. If you follow the words on this page, you know who they are. They are Black farmers, women and men whose DNA is in the soil, whose blood is in the soil, who want nothing more than to work the land and to pass the land on to their children and grandchildren. Yet, in the way of their aspirations stands the monolythic agency with its myriad of sub-agencies, the United States Department of Agriculture. It is rife with all forms of malfeasance and corruption. Those who want to do good are often kicked to the curb by those who value sameness over change. Search out the names Stucki and Rosenberg and you'll read what I'm talking about and have heard since 1994. </p><p>I'd like to offer them more during this Advent season. On some days, maybe the words and ideas and directions will come. On other days, words, ideas, and directions will not come. </p><p>So, all that I have to offer the Christ child in this Advent season is some measley leftovers. Leftovers from fatigue, IV drip, insomnia, and SLL. </p><p>Come, o come Emmanuel. Come into our world. Redeem our world. Save us from ourselves. </p><p>Here is Pastor Sean Palmer's message for Advent, week one. </p><p><a href="https://ecclesiahouston.org/liturgy/2023/11/27/searching-for-jesus-advent-week-one">https://ecclesiahouston.org/liturgy/2023/11/27/searching-for-jesus-advent-week-one</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-10142107410765381892023-12-06T09:42:00.004-06:002023-12-07T17:16:02.554-06:00Living in Between: During These Days of Advent, Lord, Lead Us<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;">On this special day of the Advent season, I am pondering “living in between.” We are living within several “in betweens.” We live in between creation and the ultimate redemption. We are living in between now and the coming of the Christ child. We are living in between normalcy and the return to normalcy, if there is to be such a thing. We are living in between what we recall about the politics of our land from years gone by, yearning for a return to civility amongst us all. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of God’s children live with a strong eye toward the end times. Some even say that the madness of the world includes multiple signs that <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>we are living in the end times. If we read the book of 2 Peter, then perhaps we can realize that we have always lived in the end times. The living part just gets stretched out.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If indeed we are living in between, especially in between now and the coming of the Christ child, how would the Holy One of Israel have us live? Live and do what? Live and think what? Live and reflect upon what? Live and dream of what?</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Living in between for me means making some noise about mistreatment of Black farmers across our land. Toward that end, we write, make calls, and advocate in a wide range of ways. Advocacy toward congressionals is one. For instance, two bills are making their way through the Senate and the House. The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2023 has once again been submitted by Senators Cory Booker and Raphael Warnock. Some people hold these men in derision, but tor me and my house, we honor and respect them because they have their hearts in the right place. That place is recovery of the Black farmer from decades after decades of discrimination, heart break, and land loss. Another bill has been written that will provide accountability with the confines of the sacred halls of the USDA. Representative Jackson from Illinois understands the challenges of farming while Black in America against all odds. That bill entitled, "Just USDA Standards and Transparency Act of 2023" holds much promise. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, this morning in the spirit of Advent, and in the reality of living in between now and when the Christ child is born, and in that in between space of when the Bill will be signed into law, I offer this prayer. For those of us who do pray, please feel free to join me. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead me to see people who will vote for or against these bills, those who are concerned about history of discrimination and those for whom it is a non-entity.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead us to understand the depth of the pain of those families who struggled and lost their farms, and those who are living in fear that even now, they just might lose their farms.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead me to a greater sensitivity of what it means to be Black in America.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead us to a great sensitivity of what it means to be a Black farmer in America.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead me to see the log in my own eye before I point out the speck of racism in the eye of another.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead us to be instruments of peace in a polarized world and to reach across whatever isles are created.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead me to see the humanity and goodness in people with whom I have many philosophical and theological differences.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, lead us to speak with courage in these perilous days, and to back up that speech with action.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span>Lord, bring forth hope upon our land </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span>that we may live and celebrate as a united people.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, bring forth honesty and faith and resilience to all people so that we can live in harmony with one another.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, prompt all of us to see the coming of the Christ child as a pivotal moment to grab hold of hope.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, prompt the season of the year to bring about all manner of acts of kindness and generosity upon all of us.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, prompt us to respect all of your children, every color, dark or light, because we are all precious in your sight.</span></span></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-40614890145412508812023-11-02T13:09:00.006-05:002023-11-04T20:44:15.591-05:00Love Affair with Medicine: Personal and Justice <p>For friends who follow me on this page and on Facebook as well may read between the lines and know that I have a love/hate relationship with medicine. I learned this irony as a child when my father died of a fast-moving cancer when he was only 46 years of age and I was only 10 years of age, and I was his shadow. My mother had a multiplicty of physical and emotional problems, many surgeries, many hospitalizations, and I swore as a teenager that I would avoid hospitals at all costs. </p><p>That was a misguided promise to myself as I soon learned that I have my own DNA structure and with it comes a likewise multiplicity of complaints that cut across my father's and my mother's contributions to my health narrative. </p><p>In 1997 I was privileged to make an appearance on behalf of Black farmers to a group of attorneys, mediators, and one attorney for the Department of Justice. I've written about that elsewhere and described the contentious setting and how it all turned out. One of the documents admitted into evidence was a white paper I wrote on the diagnoses of Black farmers I had interviewed in preparation for mediation. It was a long and painful list. I saw how white USDA treats Black farmers and observed how the pain and suffering of Black farmers originates and how the medical system treats or rather mistreats them as Black Americans living under the multiple stressors of trying to farm while Black. Strokes, blindness, kidney failure, diabetes out of control, depression, anxiety, paranoia, cancer, widowhood, and more and more. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZI4v9_7WCLMujZmmuz2BtRRqbT7X0K5iQdurq38S119ZGSzEissY5SOi9ZefKCuV19gTFIe62ShCB3sAnuHuL4WEbiAS2DQkeC1PAMh8YJJrcvrW1TLncyC6X9_sfU1TIJ2p1Ekirw1po1KIRHFvz7zVxvHLBvp1MndS3mrmakBDuuQU5hwQT-qtqpwte" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="560" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZI4v9_7WCLMujZmmuz2BtRRqbT7X0K5iQdurq38S119ZGSzEissY5SOi9ZefKCuV19gTFIe62ShCB3sAnuHuL4WEbiAS2DQkeC1PAMh8YJJrcvrW1TLncyC6X9_sfU1TIJ2p1Ekirw1po1KIRHFvz7zVxvHLBvp1MndS3mrmakBDuuQU5hwQT-qtqpwte" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>I remember one gentleman with his wife in south Georgia, sitting with me and another farmer who had introduced them to me. He taught me the word "worriation" and how it controlled his life. His wife agreed. He was dying of cancer. HE SAT THERE, INTERVIEWED WITH ME AND HE WAS DYING OF CANCER. That was painful to know and see and feel. He explained how he got it and in the days since, I have thought of him many times. He died because he was overly exposed to herbicides that are cancer causing, and he was underprepared to protect himself. And, his land had been taken away. I grieve for them even today. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtqGbSw-PpMv5wma0PEvyjAgvJ1yTCfCdjiAZr6Uabi7_QPoJZfpq6O05aFOmcVY3DdpaLywlLBpJJudM5qV96DZcV_sxfQoxKFMsNK4IDRuQ1h03dxIkADhbYydiuwiVji0qiBBMfBuhdXA_4g8291eP8jRTMI83zhgL33O8DMFQdT23EmwElFqispS73" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtqGbSw-PpMv5wma0PEvyjAgvJ1yTCfCdjiAZr6Uabi7_QPoJZfpq6O05aFOmcVY3DdpaLywlLBpJJudM5qV96DZcV_sxfQoxKFMsNK4IDRuQ1h03dxIkADhbYydiuwiVji0qiBBMfBuhdXA_4g8291eP8jRTMI83zhgL33O8DMFQdT23EmwElFqispS73" width="320" /></a></div>Later, I heard an amazing podcast on the controversial podcast series, 1619. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/podcasts/1619-slavery-healthcare.html">You can find that specific story here. </a> America has never been free of racism in medical care. If you don't believe me, listen to that episode. It will stir your system. <p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8hFraTQMDIpUq_HQSRDNNhh9rv2CPOX6LFQ-ID66e7FA4GvSrOzIT-qKbaOv_gF21OwX1hK_2BJu0b29VZj_SceOOdtPxoc7yd7xI35Ge6Z2aQJcqHcY4jAqWCU24p-jTK6MJGGpuIAAXOHeJTUSdPfw5KYGjq9rLbRG0AljAvhHHWjR2Q_5OuRIYuhuI" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8hFraTQMDIpUq_HQSRDNNhh9rv2CPOX6LFQ-ID66e7FA4GvSrOzIT-qKbaOv_gF21OwX1hK_2BJu0b29VZj_SceOOdtPxoc7yd7xI35Ge6Z2aQJcqHcY4jAqWCU24p-jTK6MJGGpuIAAXOHeJTUSdPfw5KYGjq9rLbRG0AljAvhHHWjR2Q_5OuRIYuhuI=w289-h201" width="289" /></a>I am both a cancer survivor and one with another form of cancer. Back in the day, it was renal cell carcinoma that was found and removed in June 2019. Surgery was actually on June 19 of that year. Yes, Juneteenth. At that same time, I was, uneknownest to me, to be discovered carrying small cell lymphocytic lymphoma, a blood cancer. It has been slowly growing since then, but it has taken off in the last year so, so, my treatment has escalated. </p><p></p><p>I know the feelings of both surving cancer and then battling it as it rages inside some of my cells. </p><p>On one occasion I asked a church member who was a nurse, what happened to people who have cancer and do not have insurance? I could manage treatment thankfully as a result of my wife getting us prepared in retirement. Even cancer meds that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars are zeroed out to me because of insurance and grants the hospital, University of Texas Southwestern, finds. </p><p>But, the nurse in response to my question back then, simply said, "They die." </p><p>I believed her then and I believe her now. I have collected personal data on a large group of Black farmers since 1994, and I believe they suffer enormously, mistrust the white medical sytem generally, and feel fortunate when they find physicians and hospitals who will see them as people and not based on their skin color. The technical terms are macroaggressions, those systemic factors in place that are seldom removed because they are useful, and microagressions, the daily onslaught of insults made verbally and nonverbally by power people in certain places. </p><p>Along the way, my sensitivities have gone up enormously and with much gratitude I have met wonderful people who are phlebotomists, techs, cleaning staff, floor nurses, charge nurses, and physicians at all levels of the hospital system. </p><p>Yesterday was one of those marker events. The procedure had to be done, and my medical team felt it needed to be done to rule some things out before beginning "targeted immunotherapy" for my SLL condition. </p><p>We arrived early as told at the hospital. I was checked in on the first floor, went to the second floor and was checked in again, and then waited for Joe, the first nurse to call me back. From Joe until I was wheeled out at 4:30 in the afternoon, there were at least nine attending staff. Some names I remember and some I don't. </p><p>Nissy had been in nursing for 18 years from India to Connecticut to Texas. She was competent, friendly, engaging, and compassionate. The anesthesologist who was in charge of a nurse anesthetist was also extraordinarily engaging. She shared with me her training, locations, and how she fit into the academic/clinical world. She did not, however, tell me that she spoke Arabic. We laughed that given our mutual backgrounds in academics, she could google scholar each other. I really liked her style. The nurse anesthetist was in my room only briefly with another OR nurse and a young nurse who would be shadowing her. The nurse anesthetist made sure I was ready and shot a small amount of Versed into my IV that Nissy had painlessly inserted earlier. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlv_ilk-Af37FYWNA1pxnU41CWkfeoLBiBqLuWNbJSEG5CQEDWa3yaXzWYpZHjC5ij1RXW35b_UPQvVst2MaMMy4o5sDRdu_M-bOUMhrkdX8RhLYg_8b4hes9q3RQEmlyXfwUgjQJzLj2Q9DmUUUxcB03JziKV1S7zH9oKSCjOTPL7hx-YG1n9nA7YL-o3" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="472" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlv_ilk-Af37FYWNA1pxnU41CWkfeoLBiBqLuWNbJSEG5CQEDWa3yaXzWYpZHjC5ij1RXW35b_UPQvVst2MaMMy4o5sDRdu_M-bOUMhrkdX8RhLYg_8b4hes9q3RQEmlyXfwUgjQJzLj2Q9DmUUUxcB03JziKV1S7zH9oKSCjOTPL7hx-YG1n9nA7YL-o3" width="186" /></a></div>As I was drifting in and out, one nurse recommend a book that fit my read of interest. She knew I would not remember it since I was hazy from Versed, so she called my wife and gave her the name of the book. I've ordered it just a moment ago. <p></p><p>A young urologist who started at UTSW at the same time I entered as a patient came in and took down vital info and told us what they'd be doing. A couple of surprises, from him to us and us to him. No, I did not have a nephrostomy tube coming out my back. Yes, they would shoot dye up in there for a couple of important purposes. He was likewise engaging, our paths had crossed four years ago, and he was our doctor's chief resident. He'll head to NYC shortly to Sloan Kettering. </p><p>Then, the main doctor came in. We hadn't seen him in person since 2019, he was older, and we were older. He, likewise was engaging and affable, asked me a couple of challenging questions and finally understood my answer. At one point he signaled for us to be quiet while he read through everything in my chart. He was very thorough. That's a good thing for a patient lying there. He asked for a clarification and gave us some information that staggered us. What the previous doctor had removed was not just tissue, but was cancer. Yes, the C word, CANCER, and he was surprised that we were not yet in treatment. This is the doctor with hundreds of publications that describe what he does and why as a specialist in the robotics of oncology of the kidney area. Afterwards, he gave Charla a thorough run-down of things. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLMerlvfd8IERLJAy9073f8Tp3HDGH97Aelv-Uhqt9AwIcj8MNeYqSYPigEldzR6LhpzTWQExwhe6QrnBcboXrqekfSQgBTPGq_Ck-go_T7pbwOVCgeytXIZs_qB-qsBrBZ3ut3rdFULfyCmEzG1nmxnHLFKrHosmbrZUAeI-B8sXXHFPztvhWszasnC-L" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLMerlvfd8IERLJAy9073f8Tp3HDGH97Aelv-Uhqt9AwIcj8MNeYqSYPigEldzR6LhpzTWQExwhe6QrnBcboXrqekfSQgBTPGq_Ck-go_T7pbwOVCgeytXIZs_qB-qsBrBZ3ut3rdFULfyCmEzG1nmxnHLFKrHosmbrZUAeI-B8sXXHFPztvhWszasnC-L" width="240" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">After the procedure, I was hussled to recovery, met with a wonderful nurse, Leela, and she took care of me. When the drain was not draining properly, she called in a fourth year resident who gently and skillfully fixed it and then coached my wife up on how to remove the cather on Friday. Not need to return to Dallas when there are two ways that it could be removed. We get to decide. </div></span></div><p></p><p>Then, Charla goes to get the car, and Leena and I are wrapping up. As we wrapped up, she reached over, wished me well, and gave me a big hug. That stunned me. One nurse one time prayed over me while I was in immense pain, others looked embarrassed because they had unwittingly caused me pain, but I had never been hugged by a nurse. That was deeply moving. </p><p>Then, on the drive home in the middle of wall to wall traffic on 121, the phone rang, and my hematologist asked, "Do you know the plan? Do you remember the plan?" To which I replied, "Yes, sir, I remember the plan. Let's move with it." </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieJ5eANyJ-tG-g9_qPoSeMHzYwPTgl5-CwPDcaNqnFtc2hAD4NnnZqclRSDRMDHElsc-DT5YvQBzz1JNZmRO_sPUB8POZT0Cnita1Re-yrzK_bLhZy0CW60gY5A8fvsTXK6yEkn6jPp1tbfO80RZqLNwou8g_B4SWmPC_n5lbZc6_ZRgkuyaPJq65rUpux" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieJ5eANyJ-tG-g9_qPoSeMHzYwPTgl5-CwPDcaNqnFtc2hAD4NnnZqclRSDRMDHElsc-DT5YvQBzz1JNZmRO_sPUB8POZT0Cnita1Re-yrzK_bLhZy0CW60gY5A8fvsTXK6yEkn6jPp1tbfO80RZqLNwou8g_B4SWmPC_n5lbZc6_ZRgkuyaPJq65rUpux" width="240" /></a></div>So, I'll begin targeted immunotherapy a couple of weeks earlier than expected. That's fine by me. <p></p><p>What is the whole point of this? Pain and suffering are universal. Some is a result of our misdoings. Others come naturally as a part of the process of living and dying. Some, however, is a result of malfeasance of powerful people in powerful places who do not give a shit as to what they do and to whom because they can do it with impunity. Mr. and Mrs. Black Farmer who lose their farm and house and livelihood, but Mr. Racist from FSA will retire with full benefits despite his gross, racist mistreatment of these people who simply wanted to farm. </p><p>So, as long as my lungs work, and I can breathe this air around me, and as long as I have kidneys that will function, and all of the other body parts that are now 74 years old, I'll continue to write and advocate for Black farmers. Their stories MUST be told. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqrDir-W4JpOWewOJZoxmxYUus2EFcQUWslX6V2LniZlPG8-IPhTflyunqTG8UixNhuBnBjstezzp_GevAuMfwh7B8jo-_A7jaFAyXelysLp589_-tyYr0WLMBs04PMkiXmeL6Vzmrua0wjZJny3RKNd7yvDtHOf1UAzbu2W6k9JjzF93WUSSKhmfviZaq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqrDir-W4JpOWewOJZoxmxYUus2EFcQUWslX6V2LniZlPG8-IPhTflyunqTG8UixNhuBnBjstezzp_GevAuMfwh7B8jo-_A7jaFAyXelysLp589_-tyYr0WLMBs04PMkiXmeL6Vzmrua0wjZJny3RKNd7yvDtHOf1UAzbu2W6k9JjzF93WUSSKhmfviZaq" width="320" /></a></div>I will continue to tell stories out of admiration and respect for hospital staff who do their jobs, their callings, well, so as to keep people like me alive and moving. <p></p><p>Their stories are well worth hearing, as time and all allow, because they are good people, decent human beings, many of whom have immigrated to America and to Texas in search of better lives for themselves and their families. </p><p>Shame on you if you judge someone by the color of their skin or their accent. Shame on you. </p><p>And, may God bless you if you are one of His children who seeks to honor and respect all of God's children, every color, dark or light, because they are precious in His sight, and they may just wind up being your doctors or your nurses or the staff that serve other vital tasks in that hospital that is not quite in your windshield at the moment. Wasn't in mine either back in 2019, but it was then and it is now. I'm just very grateful for the way people care about the sick and wounded in those hospitals. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-13109696330330826322023-10-17T16:24:00.005-05:002023-10-18T15:54:30.044-05:00You Must Choose a Side: Justice Demands It<p>You and I both know the tossed around phrase, "There's good people on both sides." We know from whence that phrase came. There's another phrase perhaps you've heard before, "Justice takes sides." Or maybe "justice is what love looks like out in the open," or something to that effect. Cornel West is fond of that last statement. </p><p>I am also a fan of Dr. Jemar Tisby and his books, podcasts, and his words from substack. <a href="https://jemartisby.substack.com/p/we-cannot-passively-accept-evil">Here is one that struck me a day or so ago, </a>so I've been turning it over and thinking of its applications. Do you do that at times yourself? This particular article has its background in the Montgomery Boycott in 1955, prompted by Rosa Parks and her determination to keep her seat, which led to a 381 day boycott of the bus system in Montgomery as Black Americans found alternate ways to work, shop, and to other events whereas prior they would get on the segregated bus and move to the back. </p><p>One of the key decisions by the city's fathers and mothers was to find a new voice for the movement, and they found that voice in Martin Luther King, Jr., the new pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Other sisters had voiced protest against the segregated bus system, but it didn't stick like it did in 1955. </p><p>Dr. King tells his version of those momentous days in his book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stride-Toward-Freedom-Montgomery-Story/dp/0062504908">"Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.</a>" It is a riveting book. It's time for me to read it again and wonder out loud to myself why I underlined or starred or commented on certain paragraphs or sentences. </p><p>In Dr. Tisby's substack article referenced above, there was a particular sentence that stuck with me. Without taking the world's opinion as to its orgin, I hunted through the entire book, and there it was, bracketed and underlined on page 51. Here is the quote: <i style="font-weight: bold;">"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is cooperating with it." </i>There is much more to that paragraph, but it'll wait for another day. </p><p>So, while Dr. Tisby offers a well-articulated broad brush stroke for this riveting phrase, my mind, heart, and words go to a specific context: Black farmers, their oppressors, those doing the oppressing and those who idly stand by with a toothpick in their mouths, feigning ignorance or "not my problem." </p><p>What the USDA/FSA have done to Black farmers is indeed evil. "What evils do you recall?" Dr. Hinson, you might ask. Thanks for asking. I'll name a few. </p><p>Selling land to a Black farmer, knowing that the land is over-priced and cannot produce the volume of cotton to make the payments on it, so your good friend can come along and buy it for a below market value price, that's #1. Do you think others in that FSA office knew about these shenanigans? </p><p>Foreclosing on a farmer because he got his loan too far into the planting season, that's # 1, and then when a disaster came, that is, too much rain, so that he could not get into the fields to harvest his crop, you don't offer him disaster relief, that's # 2, and then to settle his debt, you seize equipment that belongs to his parents, # 3. Or, when the farmer fills out paper work for the operating loan, you tell him to write it in pencil and you'll make it cash flow, and then in a depostion you lie about it, that's # 4, but your secretary says, "No. That's what he did." Do you think others in that FSA office knew about these shenanigans besides the secretary? At least she had courage to tell the truth. </p><p>Farmers depend on operating loans long before the planting season draws near, but you, Mr. FSA guy, deny him loans, sending him again and again and again, demanding that he fill out his paper work differently, that's # 1. You deny them for so long, that his pigs actually die, # 2. Then, he appeals the decision up to the state level, and that office sides with Mr. Black farmer, but you take his check, place it in his file, and never tell him about it until it's too late, and his pigs were dead, # 3. Then, you force him and his ill wife out, sell the land at an open auction, and his neighbor, the white guy over there buys it for below market value, # 4. His wife dies and then he dies in an untimely manner. Do you think in a small office in rural America, that other people were standing idly by and watching it all unfurl? I think so. There are more than just four evil actions in this situation. There are too many to count, but they all have a common denominator. </p><p>Those items listed above? Let's call them what they are. Acts of evil. Oppression is evil. Watching as it unfolds is evil. Call them what they are. EVIL. There are no innocent bystanders in this thing called racism. If you know, your guilty, as guilty as if you did the evil thing yourself. </p><p>As an aside, I know of one farmer family in which an office person knew that such malfeasance was going on, so he pulled the farmer and wife in, laid out the materials and told them all that was going on, and they eventually won their case against USDA/FSA and the local bank. That employee was courageous, very courageous. </p><p>There are more stories, but I think you can see the points I'm making. Some people intentionally make decisions that harm people. People in positions of power and influence decide that farmers who skin is Black should not have that much land, do not need to farm that much land, do not need to have that much money from their harvests, and do not need to have those expensive pieces of equipment. Those people are evil according to the quote from Dr. King. Other people who sit around and watch it happen, other office employees, other agents of the federal government, other powerful people in powerful positions are just as evil as they turn a blind eye, accepting evil behavior without protesting. They are just as complicit as it the person who signed the documents that led to the farmer's foreclosure on his property and way of life. </p><p>Racism is evil. Turning a blind eye and saying nothing about racist behaviors is racism also. </p><p>There's a lot of evil-doing these days as the plight of Black farmers is being ignored: Mr. President, Mr. USDA Ag Secretary, Mr. and Mrs. Senators, Mr. and Mrs. Congressionals. Mr. and Mrs. employees of the USDA, you who have your fingers on explosive information, but the Secretary says not to release it via the FOIA process because, "It'll make us look bad." <br /></p><p>Yes, there is a lot of evil going on over in the agriculture world these days. There is a lot of complicity going on. The people I know and respect will not look away. They and I are truthtellers. We are whistle blowers. We demand accountability and transparency. </p><p>I hope you do, too. Call your senators and congressional folks and tell them what is going on. Feel free to use anything captured in any of the posts on this blog. </p><p>The wheels of justice grind slowly and along the way, those wheels and those sitting in powerful postions all the way from the local level to the highest offices in our land, they are responsible for the grind that destroys our people. Two of our people have met their ancestors the last few weeks. We grieve and we mourn, but we do not give up. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-65339473698614001752023-10-12T15:24:00.002-05:002023-10-12T15:25:20.609-05:00He was There at the Beginning, and Now He is with the Ancestors <p>The first time I ever heard James Myart's voice I did not know if he was an aristocrat or what. I knew he was an attorney, but I seriously could not tell if he was white or Black. It was a Friday afternoon in the Spring of 1994, and I was home after a week of teaching, supervising, and doing therapy. The phone rang, and he told me that my friend, Tom Milholland, had sent him to me. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCKkOmQpksAvZJ-GrOr6sdT7Qvdr8IEJ-DBa569aE0UpxvwFkTejqRNOcn06GsFYU3D8g9XV9GyDewKMfCx1C7bdyqQFqUDGRsbARrYBzqbfKyrV46bjA0ShnAhvecrmBRVfUC5QYDgpSDTnfAeDHr5ApPAD7Gfik_CkdDRYzx5T6ShhETXczAt2KDZXys" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="658" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCKkOmQpksAvZJ-GrOr6sdT7Qvdr8IEJ-DBa569aE0UpxvwFkTejqRNOcn06GsFYU3D8g9XV9GyDewKMfCx1C7bdyqQFqUDGRsbARrYBzqbfKyrV46bjA0ShnAhvecrmBRVfUC5QYDgpSDTnfAeDHr5ApPAD7Gfik_CkdDRYzx5T6ShhETXczAt2KDZXys=w289-h257" width="289" /></a></div>We talked. He asked a lot of questions. I answered them, and then he said, "Dr. Hinson I think I have failed to communicate to you the seriousness of our concerns," to which I replied, "Obviously I don't so tell me about your concerns. <p></p><p>For the next fifteen or twenty minutes or so he rifted about the injustices done to Black farmers. </p><p>It was there that he snagged me. A few weeks later, he strolled into my office with a gentleman from another state who had been screwed over by the county committee of the FSA/USDA. Game on. Tell me what I need to know. </p><p>James was a powerhouse of a human being. Short in stature but powerful in personality and demeanor. </p><p>What I learned later, which James actually t<a href="https://blackfarmersinsearchofjusticefilm.com/">ells in the documentary</a> is that a farmer and his wife were watching television and on the news channel out of Abilene was a Black attorney representing a white couple who had been fostering a Black child, who now wanted to adopt him. Against all odds, James won that case. The farmer couple talked to the attorney and said, we want you to be our attorney, but that required money that they did not have. James never expected to hear from them, but a few days later, a certified check came in the mail. </p><p>My friend told James to call me, and that's how it all started, and I've never looked back, and I have James Myart, attorney, San Antonio, Texas, to thank for that. </p><p>James required reports that had to be filed with the federal government. I complied and wrote and took notes on hundreds of pages. I went from Texas to Louisiana to Georgia. He opened the door by simply telling Black farmers, "you can trust him. He's one of us." And they did. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRoCIQ-zh58dwzUOHIaejW1kA5QiiKjvg_q8QWJWlPXW4icVkFuOHy1cAzAL6e-SXv5-JZ9Qp2C1oyrXJuvsyyF3PFjXc3cPKpmxiZbDpxl7dXgIgvNne3ClupMIa5lbaFkc8u_1apDm6eFf_gwtv0UNtsFYMXiiVb5kqL0lIko0NKJmtqkOXnUpZZFPNP" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1046" data-original-width="740" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRoCIQ-zh58dwzUOHIaejW1kA5QiiKjvg_q8QWJWlPXW4icVkFuOHy1cAzAL6e-SXv5-JZ9Qp2C1oyrXJuvsyyF3PFjXc3cPKpmxiZbDpxl7dXgIgvNne3ClupMIa5lbaFkc8u_1apDm6eFf_gwtv0UNtsFYMXiiVb5kqL0lIko0NKJmtqkOXnUpZZFPNP" width="170" /></a></div>Collaborating with James meant suiting up and showing up at a mediation hearing in DC in August, 1997. He was settling their cases via the Administrative Law Procedure, but damages had to be negotiated. That mediation hearing was intense. The representative for the Department of Justice did not want me there, but James argued for my presence. I spoke while the attorney for Justice played taps on the glass table top with his sharpened pencil. Just a few minutes before that, James and this attorney for Justice had almost come to blows. On that day, I knew that what we were up to was huge, so I drew in pencil the table, who sat where, what the relationships were like, and who sat along the back wall. It was a serious event that I'd been invited to. I knew what my role was because James had defined it well. That's a story for another occasion. <p></p><p>From then on, my office and I were in contact with James often. He needed updated reports or he needed an updated statement of charges. </p><p>Then, after a while I lost track of him. He would appear periodically with ideas he'd run by me. I was always moved by how he'd stay in touch with me and the speed with which he could voice his ideas. </p><p>Simply put, there would not be a Black Farmer Movement without James Myart. I have believed that for several years, and heard it from another advocate just last week. Between 1997 and 1999 fifteen cases of Black farmers were settled with the USDA/DOJ. I don't recall exactly how many had James as their attorney. I worked with him as psychological consultant on four of the fifteen, four of the first that settled with the USDA/DOJ, but he represented more. </p><p>Later, when the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit was filed, I was in touch with James again. We talked on several occasions about how the case had turned out. I think he felt some deep remorse that he did not do more for farmers. On the other hand, I sensed in him a deep rage and resentment that another attorney had taken his work and had made millions of dollars off of the farmers. </p><p>Over the last year, James came into my life again. He had big dreams. He wanted a "do-over" on some things that he'd left undone and he asked for my help along the way. Some things I could do and other things I could not do. </p><p>And then, two months after having talked to him the last time, I was asked a painful question, <a href="https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/29191069/james-willie-myart-jr">"Did you know that James Myart has passed?"</a> I had intended to call and catch up with him, but, to my regret, I did not. In the meantime, apparently, his health challenges got the best of him. </p><p>I do not know how he died. Maybe I want to know and maybe I don't want to know. </p><p>His death, however, took the wind out of our sails, several of us. When a warrior goes down in battle, regardless of our divergent opinions on various matters, it hurts. It leaves a hole in our hearts. </p><p>So, without James Myart there would be no Black Farmer Movement. I am very thankful that he allowed Shoun and me to interview him there in San Antonio a few years back. He does indeed play a pivotal role in the documentary. Whether via film, his friends, or his family, his story will be told for generations. </p><p>I miss him and will for a long time. Without his invitation, I never would have become a part of the Black Farmer Movement. I'm deeply indebted to him and will remain so until my time on earth comes to an end. </p><p>Rest in Power, James, until we meet again. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-1277641644638736512023-10-01T09:35:00.002-05:002023-10-01T09:42:04.329-05:00The Price Exacted by USDA for Farming While Black in America<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The saga continues. Details have been written in numerous places, that white farmers have the advantages in terms of total farms, total acreage, ability to keep their farms, and likelihood of obtaining loans in an appropriate time frame so as to plant. For Black farmers, the mantra is too little too late, and when the note comes due, the land is sold. There are many stories of collusions between white farmers, bankers, and FSA, and even at times the local implement dealer. The following trailer puts human faces on the whole, complicated issue. And, it'll continue until the occupant of the White House has the moral courage to do something about racism in the halls and offices of the USDA and FSA. This trailer is from the Hill and Hinson film, "I'm Just a Layman in Pursuit of Justice: Black Farmers Fight Against USDA," an award winning film that tells the truth about farming while Black in America. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/basamDNZ12U" width="320" youtube-src-id="basamDNZ12U"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-73772150442202585362023-09-27T12:38:00.001-05:002023-09-27T12:38:22.994-05:00Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed, Revised<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2018/06/blessed-are-you.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed, Revised</a>: Blessed are you who protest against injustice For great is your reward in heaven, But here on earth, great is your mistreatment. Ble...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-61081459250171718672023-09-27T12:22:00.001-05:002023-09-27T12:22:47.379-05:00Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed, Revised<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2018/06/blessed-are-you.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed, Revised</a>: Blessed are you who protest against injustice For great is your reward in heaven, But here on earth, great is your mistreatment. Ble...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-88527597923067514662023-09-27T12:11:00.001-05:002023-09-27T12:11:56.694-05:00Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2018/06/blessed-are-you.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: Blessed Are You, Or Maybe Cursed</a>: Blessed are you who protest against injustice For great is your reward in heaven, But here on earth, great is your mistreatment. B...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-82281586143784015002023-09-25T12:51:00.001-05:002023-09-25T12:51:40.664-05:00Let Justice Ring: The Parable of the Soils of Justice<a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-parable-of-soils-re-applied.html?spref=bl">Let Justice Ring: The Parable of the Soils of Justice</a>: And again, the speaker stood up on the podium and behind the microphone, and his words burst forth in a voice unlike any had heard. He spo...Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-12936302436727024422023-09-04T12:42:00.008-05:002023-09-04T12:50:17.133-05:00Baseball and Maintaining the Racial Status Quo in the '40s and '50s<h4 style="font-family: inherit; position: relative; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZ9Isun0cQxkYy3Du57pgyfZrtDxTxwzuNEj83aHCL9MBCuKhj54X-CeTD5yAgbLDF7bY5fsqPMuTXlYzE9lYS_FBdJJXg7NDvGn2zBh_RcESQafDe4Xq-WK7g_MZwyEY8FEy55gqzvTd1yGJwYlPnIPtIk8lclrT3P1g5YNcnUiC-YWYdIwAFQFFOrArJ" style="background-color: white; clear: right; display: inline; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><img alt="" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZ9Isun0cQxkYy3Du57pgyfZrtDxTxwzuNEj83aHCL9MBCuKhj54X-CeTD5yAgbLDF7bY5fsqPMuTXlYzE9lYS_FBdJJXg7NDvGn2zBh_RcESQafDe4Xq-WK7g_MZwyEY8FEy55gqzvTd1yGJwYlPnIPtIk8lclrT3P1g5YNcnUiC-YWYdIwAFQFFOrArJ" width="155" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In John Klima's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Willies-Boys-Birmingham-Barons-Baseball/dp/0470400137/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1693849707&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Klima&s=books&sr=1-2">"Willie's Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend," </a>the author does a good job of chronicling the origins, successes, and ultimately the demise of the Negro Leagues. Successes of Black ball players being signed by Major League clubs, without any compensation, by the way, ultimately led to the Black ball player system shutting down. It would come much later, up into the 1960s, but during the late '40s, it was "on the ropes," to use a boxing metaphor. The dominant subtext of the book is the making of Willie Mays, HOFer, from the hills of Alabama to the fields of the Negro Leagues, even as a high school kid. Apparently, everyone </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">knew that he would get out of "the box," a term Black ball players used, and make it to the bigs. </span></span></h4><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a curious quote that reminds me of what I've heard overtly and covertly over the years of interviewing and advocating for Black farmers. See if you see the parallels:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><h4 style="font-family: inherit; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span data-offset-key="c4egr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"Yet deceit abounded on both sides. Black players felt they were better than ordinary players. They thought they weren't getting a fair look. Every full-time major league scout in 1948 was white and the majority of them were former major league ballplayers, which meant they were white southerners. The old battle lines of the South were drawn again. The right to determine the value of property and who it belonged to, the right of one man to choose the fate of another, and the belief inherent in generations of white southerners that black southerners were there to serve them, and if not, to be ignored, permeated the players and the scouts." </i><span style="font-weight: normal;">--- page 143.</span></span></h4><div><span data-offset-key="c4egr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><h4 style="font-family: inherit; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span data-offset-key="9dgs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The "planter class" mindset was ruling major league baseball. If you owned a plantation and had 15 or more enslaved persons, you fell into this class, and you were a millionaire. Check out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marse-Psychological-Portrait-Southern-Supremacy-ebook/dp/B09KG4SYGQ">"Marse: A Psychological Portrait of the Southern Slave Master and His Legacy of White Supremacy,"</a> a heavy read by Dr. De. Kirkpatrick. The white owners of the major league clubs, and sometimes even clubs in the Negro Leagues, were comparable to the plantation owners. The scouts were supposed to keep the owners' clubs white. All of that broke with Jackie Robinson, but there is more to the story including stories of those clubs that feigned interest in Black ball players, such as the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankess, but they were really not interested. It was sort of ok to have Black players in the minor leagues, but not up with the bigs.</span></span></h4><div><span data-offset-key="9dgs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><h4 style="font-family: inherit; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span data-offset-key="ppob-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Willie made it out. His team and coaches helped him out. We know the rest of the story. </span></span></h4>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-80785137571232291252023-08-28T15:58:00.007-05:002023-08-29T10:03:45.273-05:00Jesus, the Others, and Us Then and Now<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB47puDKrsX91O85pr_Lyyun4IItZWDDFD-JaQsopZlpuS15mFXz9cqsQgRLIum2fCovFe_Xhi9JEDK1wMxCml3fuIWJsADd-9g3XPSxy905VyJqh5DOw7ykSIavV15zMMe5c0WVFi2w3r5rzRiF73gEAeBnFWPPiNP86EsDpQIRf1O1MemepqTwluwMPp" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="546" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhB47puDKrsX91O85pr_Lyyun4IItZWDDFD-JaQsopZlpuS15mFXz9cqsQgRLIum2fCovFe_Xhi9JEDK1wMxCml3fuIWJsADd-9g3XPSxy905VyJqh5DOw7ykSIavV15zMMe5c0WVFi2w3r5rzRiF73gEAeBnFWPPiNP86EsDpQIRf1O1MemepqTwluwMPp=w180-h213" width="180" /></a>Howard Thurman and his book, <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/june-web-only/jesus-and-disinherited.html">"Jesus and the Disinherited,"</a> are seldom far from my thinking. For a few years now this book has been an early morning companion in my attempt to make sense out of life, faith, and the journey toward justice. My understanding is that whenever Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled, he would take his Bible, the Constitution, and this unique volume. I would like to know more about that commitment to racial and economic justice and how Dr. Thurman fit into Dr. King's journey. </p><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Thurman">Thurman's life was deep and rich.</a> The grandson of formerly enslaved people, he wrote prolifically and traveled extensively and shaped generations of people including lay people and ministers. His <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvJVxsezAwc">videos are available</a> over on youtube for people like me who are relatively uninformed. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVl_irB59lM">There is even a movie about the man.</a> </p><p>Most compelling for me is how Thurman describes Jesus of Nazareth in this small volume, how Jesus navigated the perils on the left, the conservative Jewish leaders of the day and their fear of Him upsetting the proverbial apple cart of their faith traditions and their intentions to kill Him, and on the right, the Roman government that was undoubtedly aware of any potential uprising from this religious sect in Galilee. </p><p>As Jesus navigated the perils of His day, He reached out and touched and engaged and loved those who were "disinherited" of His day. As a Black man in America, Thurman knew what it was like to live in a land where he and his people were disinherited. Jesus connected with the poor, the prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, those who were demon possessed, avoided as unclean, the blind, the disabled since birth, women, and others whom society deemed unworthy. He even had a surprising conversation with a woman at a well in the middle of the day when no one else was around. Shameful!</p><p>Just the other day, my wife and I had a rich conversation about our church, and who we think are the "disinherited" of our day, and how they are noted in public assemblies. Our church and our denomination are not the only ones who do this. No, many, many do the same. </p><p>Who do you think are the "disinherited" of our times? Immigrants, Muslims, people who experience same sex attraction, non-binary individuals, gay couples, people who walk in Gay Pride events, people categorized as LGBTQ, and any number of other people. If we listened closely enough, we can still hear racial slurs toward Hispanic people or Black people or any number of other groups. Watch the news for a couple of hours and there are the perpetrators of violence upon the "disinherited" of our day.</p><p>What we do publicly is to declare where we stand. We make declarations both overtly and covertly in public places and spaces, declaring these others as others. Thus, we "otherize" some of God's children who do not walk, talk, live, believe, look, and think like we do. Implicitly, I think, we glorify ourselves as ones who can do the "otherizing" as we point out the "others." We are insulting the "disinherited" of our day. Why would we want to insult someone for whom Christ also died? </p><p>This dynamic is very similar to what religious people did when Jesus walked the earth. They "othered" Him as he hung out with "others" such as tax collectors and sinners and any number of other people who found Him and His message compelling. Their list was long.</p><p>The irony is that in some of our assemblies we "otherize" people or groups of people and then expect ourselves to have a voice with them. People who are "othered" will not attend our assemblies, or if they do, they will not come for long once they have heard the language. They, I think, will avoid conversations with us. </p><p>So, bottom line, Jesus engaged those who were disinherited. I want to live the way Jesus lived. I devote much of my time and energies to fighting for justice for Black farmers. They, Black farmers of our land, are "otherized" by institutions of power and privilege. They get their loans late and less than what they qualify for, they lose their farms and homes when the banks and the local county offices have been working deals behind their backs, they receive loans less frequently and in fewer dollars than do white farmers, and I could go on and on, but you get the drift. </p><p>I was once a young person who easily could have been labeled one of the "disinherited" kids of the day: poor, growing up in a single parent family, mother addicted to prescription drugs, a parent who was admitted on two occasions to a mental institution, lived on commodities, received hand me down clothes from well meaning people at church. It was terribly uncomfortable. </p><p>Now is not a time to insult people for whom Christ also died. There is no need to use the pulpit as a time and place to label people. Now is not the time to draw distinctions between who "deserves" loans and services for farming, and those who do not, at least based upon the color of their skin. Now is the time and this is the place to engage people in their life journeys. Now is the time to treat people with dignity and respect whether in our churches, our offices, our neighborhoods, our restaurants, or wherever.</p><p>Now is not the time to craft smaller tables. Now is the time to build bigger tables. Now is the time open the doors and invite all in to sit with us. Better yet, get to know people on their own turf. Develop respectful relationships with others. It's hard to talk smack about someone you love. </p><p>Excuse me, but I'm going to go and hang out with Jesus of Nazareth and Dr. Howard Thurman for a while today. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-25934408167050435942023-08-14T15:54:00.001-05:002023-08-14T15:54:04.087-05:00Dear President Biden: Your Administration Continues to Betray Black Farmers <p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b><i>This letter to President Biden further explains the letter to the congressionals in Texas in the letter found below. </i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">January 19, 2023</span></p>
<h4 style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">President Joe
Biden<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The White House<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Washington, DC</span></span></h4><h4 style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dear Mr.
President:</span></h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Your administration
continues to betray Black farmers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We have written to
you about this betrayal and our concerns on several occasions including: </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">September
28, 2022</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">
and </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">December 8, 2022</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. And, we have written to Secretary
Vilsack on several occasions including: </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">November 22, 2021</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">July
23, 2021</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">,
and even to the House and Senate Ag
Committees on </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">May 29, 2022</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. Our concerns,
then, have been articulated on multiple occasions. We have not been working in
the dark, but rather in the light of day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Secretary Tom
Vilsack, your appointee at USDA has deep ties to the dairy industry in which he
worked between terms with President Obama and then with you. That relationship
has resulted in millions of dollars being doled out to “Big Dairy.” The same
could be said for “Big Farming.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">At the same time,
he has not delivered on congressional allocations found in the act that you
signed, The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), just as he did under the
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). The $3.1B for “distressed” farmers has
not found its way into the hands of Black farmers. Our network which is
nationwide has found only seven Black farmers who have experienced any sort of
“payments” under this Bill. We know that 2,400+ Black farmers owe approximately
$210M, and Secretary Vilsack has not paid off their debts as contained in the
Bill. Why is that, Mr. President?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The IRA of 2022
also promised $2.2B for those farmers and ranchers who had experienced
discrimination. One or more non-governmental entities were to be tasked with
distributing those funds. Again, without a doubt most Black farmers would
qualify, especially the Pigford Legacy Farmers. Again, Secretary Vilsack has
not acted within an expeditious manner toward Black farmers. Will he indeed run
out the clock, endangering that funding with the next administration?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We understand that
$800M has been received by 13,000 distressed farmers, that they have been
brought current on their financial obligations and that an additional payment was
made and that they are to take up their own payments the following year. We ask
the USDA, “where are the other Black farmers,” and “when will the other Black
farmers receive their due?” And we are not given any answers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We also understand
that Secretary Vilsack will reduce funding for discrimination from $2.2B to
$770M. If this is true, this is indeed an act of arrogance on his part.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We are troubled
that he continues to fund white farmer programs, create MOUs with entities such
as the National Urban League, which has little to nothing to do with farming, and
yet he is not forthcoming about efforts with Black farmers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">When we ask the
FSA Administrator the status of Black farmers in particular, we are given
global assertions relative to all farmers, with no details forthcoming about
Black farmers. We are left to wonder does he not know the status of Black
farmers or is he refusing to tell us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We were hopeful
that The Consolidated Appropriates Act of 2023 (CAA) would include tax relief
for Black farmers that was curiously omitted in the American Rescue Plan Act of
2021. Since no amendments were allowed in the CAA, Black farmers (and other
farmers) will now be saddled with taxes on the principal that has been forgiven,
both for those “distressed” farmers as well as for those who will receive
compensation for discrimination. This will result in putting the farmers back
between a rock and a hard place. In some instances, they will be worse off than
before.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Secretary Vilsack
is playing games with funds allocated to farmers. He is not a friend to Black
farmers. He is hurting the cause of Black farmers, and at the same time, he is
costing you credibility. As he is your appointee, we ask, how does he get to
play with the public’s money? How does he get to play with funds allocated by
Congress? Where is the oversight over his doings in USDA? And we further ask,
why are you not more forthcoming with regard to his deficiencies? </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">One
of our members has written in recent days about Vilsack’s failures following
the signing of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">. He indeed
slow-walked that process just as he is slow-walking processes here. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We now live in
precarious times with the radical right controlling the House of
Representatives, with ongoing revelations about confidential documents found in
your office and residence, and as you are working to get the first caucus out
of Iowa and into South Carolina.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We are not
impressed with your appearance at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta last Sunday. In
fact, Black farmers in the southern region are growing increasingly disenchanted
with Senator Warnock. We believe that he has abandoned us now that he has won
his election.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We want you to
take a stand for Black farmers. We realize that it may cost you some white
votes. In the long run, however, it will gain favor and votes from Black
farmers and families.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We want Black
farmers, as a pool of “distressed” farmers, to be relieved of their onerous
indebtedness. We want Black farmers who have experienced the devastation of
discrimination to be compensated. We want to see systemic change at USDA and
that includes resolution of the numerous complaints within the Office of Civil
Rights. We want transparency and accountability, and we want to see changes
made with the county committee system. We want more than verbal assurances that
discrimination will no longer be tolerated at USDA.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Dr. Eddie Glaude,
professor at Princeton University, has a unique grasp on America as he </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">articulates
in an interview with MSNBC</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> that we fail to confess our racism and white
supremacy. The USDA has failed to own up to its responsibilities as to how
racism brutalizes and destroys people as the USDA takes away land, identity,
health, and families. </span><a href="about:blank"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This documentary addresses the impact of
systemic racism upon Black farmers and their families</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We gave you the
White House, Mr. President, and you gave us, over our protests, Thomas Vilsack.
There is still time to undo these injustices.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We are eager to
hear from you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Respectfully,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence Lucas,
President Emeritus<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">USDA Coalition of
Minority Employees<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Representative,
Justice for Black Farmers Group<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Email:
lawrlcl@aol.com<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Phone: (202)
744-4384<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">CC: Congressional
Black Caucus<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">NAACP, Legal
Defense Fund<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senator Elizabeth
Warren<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senator Cory
Booker<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senator Bernie
Sanders<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senator Ben Ray
Lujan<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senator Chuck
Grassley<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">House Ag Committee<br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Senate Ag
Committee</span></div>
Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-2300756300435012842023-08-14T15:40:00.008-05:002023-08-14T15:47:15.886-05:00Proclamation to President Joe Biden Regarding the Racism at USDA<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><b><i>THIS LETTER FURTHER EXPLAINS THE LETTER TO THE TEXAS CONGRESSIONALS THAT FOLLOWS. </i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Proclamation
to President Joe Biden Regarding the Racism at the U. S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA)</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">June
23, 2023<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;">On January 1,
1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed
enslaved people in areas of the country. Then on April 9, 1865 the war ended
with signatures at Appomattox Court House. Neither ended the brutality of
bondage for enslaved Black agrarians. Two and a half months later on June 19,
1865, the word of freedom came to the shores of Galveston. However, slavery of
Black people continued in this land.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Arising from this
tragedy of plantations and bondage, Black agrarians came to possess significant
numbers of farms and acreage. At the height of Black farmer ownership during
the early 20</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> century, 950,000 Black Americans owned approximately
17 million acres, comprising 14% of all farmers. Today, approximately 48,687
Black producers farm some 4.6 million acres, or 1.4% of all farmers and .5% of
all farmland. While there are many factors that have historically shaped Black
land loss, the major contributor is racism within what said to be “The Peoples’
Department.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Decisions are being
made to this day that lead to the continual confiscation of Black farmers’ land
and loss of generational wealth at a tune of $326 billion. President after President,
Congress after Congress, Secretary after Secretary, Black farmers are still
being left out of the American agriculture mainstream.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">There must be a
reckoning for the decades of neglect and outright racism. We have lost too much
land and a way of life. Our people are aging. The stress of facing persistent
racist attitudes and behaviors day in and day out is killing our Black farmers.
Now is the time for Black farmers to receive their justice. It is time for the
Biden Administration and the American people to compensate them fully for their
pain and suffering. It is time for USDA and its leaders to be held accountable
for their malfeasance. Racism must be rooted out of USDA and accountability,
transparency, equity, and justice found within “The Last Plantation.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-6926171198385185972023-08-12T10:14:00.004-05:002023-08-12T10:17:30.380-05:00Dear Congressionals in Texas, Whose State Has THE Most Black Farmers, The Clock in Ticking <div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>August 8, 2023<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>RE: Concerns for
USDA and Black Farmers<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Dear Congressionals of Texas: Representative Crockett, Representative Green, Representative Jackson Lee, Representative Allred, and Representative Veacy<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>I am contacting
you via phone and email since you represent citizens of the State of Texas and
some of its most vulnerable citizens are under attack in Washington, DC by the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA).<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>We are at a
pivotal point in the history of our country and in this current election cycle.
We want to share with you our concerns and make a request of you.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Texas has </span><a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2017/Full_Report/Volume_1,_Chapter_2_US_State_Level/st99_2_0051_0051.pdf"><span>the most African
American farmers of any state</span></a><span> according to the 2017 Census of<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Agriculture. At a
national level, the Ag Census data indicates that there are 48,697 Black
producers in the US and that there are 35,470 Black-operated farms. This is a
significant decline from 1920 where there were upwards of 950,000 Black farmer
operators and in 1910 Black farmers farmed 19 million acres. The losses have
been horrendous and much of it is due to racism at USDA. These losses from the
land, productivity, and generational wealth are </span><a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/wealth-disparities-in-civil-rights/the-contemporary-relevance-of-historic-black-land-loss/"><span>estimated at $326
billion</span></a><span>.<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Our specific aim
has been to find debt relief and compensatory damages for Black farmers. A
large group of us met in </span><a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2023/03/blind-spot-let-me-look-again.html"><span>front of the White
House on March 1</span></a><span>,
demonstrating near the anniversary of the Fairness Hearing for the Pigford v.
Glickman case before Judge Friedman, March 2, 1999. We believe now, as we
believed then, that Pigford was a debacle and that Black farmers were worse off
now than they were before. These kinds of remedies can only come when systemic
change is brought about within the halls and offices of USDA/FSA.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>As we all know,
Congress had appropriated 120% of the indebtedness of socially disadvantaged
farmer and ranchers within the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for debt relief
and taxes for those farmers who had suffered discrimination in the farm/services
division. Secretary Vilsack </span><a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2021/11/slow-walking-or-why-has-it-taken-so.html"><span>“slow-walked” the
process</span></a><span>
and allowed 12 white farmer class action law suits to be filed and for two
courts to issue restraining orders against USDA that disallowed them to pay
Black farmers and other Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers. We believe
this was a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>In fact, many of
us </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/lloyd-wright-open-letter-to-biden-about-vilsack/a1d55aef-78ad-41f1-aa12-1e2ff0874d19/"><span>protested against
Vilsack’s appointment</span></a><span>
long before he was appointed, but President Biden ignored us. In fact, we
participated with the Biden/Harris transition team and were told at one point
in the process that what we wanted, “race-based remediation to a historical
anti-black process” was “unconstitutional.” We told President Biden and Secretary
Vilsack about this. We understand now that Vilsack was orchestrating the
conversation.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Then, in 2022,
Congress signed the Inflation Reduction Act which made allocations available to
“distressed” farmers and ranchers, a race neutral language that circumvented
frivolous law suits. In that bill, $3.1 billion was allocated for “distressed”
farmers to bring them into compliance with their debts with USDA/FSA for those
with guaranteed loans. It also allocated $2.2 billion for farmers who can show
that they were discriminated against. The Ag Secretary is slow-walking these
processes as well.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>We can identify ten
or so Black farmers who have received partial or full relief from their debts. We
know that there are approximately 3,000 Black farmers whose indebtedness is
under $210 million. As far as we can discover, only one Black farmer received
full debt relief in Texas, a widow whose husband owed $200K. We think Vilsack
is “cherry-picking” farmers and that this is an attempt to enhance his
credibility. We are not buying it.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Additionally, the
process that he has established under the IRA for relief due to discrimination,
with its administrator, hubs, and cooperators is another circumvention of
justice for Black farmers. We believe the power to provide relief from decades
of discrimination rests in the hands of the secretary and that he will be
ineffective. As a result, Black farmers will continue to suffer.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>We are at a
pivotal point both in history and in this election cycle. While things are
chaotic on the Republican side of potential candidates, we see President Biden
as the only viable candidate on the Democratic side. However, a new third-party
candidate, Dr. Cornel West, of the Green Party has begun to cut into the Black
vote that has gone to Biden in the past. As time passes, that can only deepen
the challenges. Dr. West is also the ONLY presidential candidate who has spoken
up for Black farmers. You can see </span><a href="https://blackmeninamerica.com/cornel-west/"><span>our conversation with him here</span></a><span> as well as sound
bites from him </span><a href="https://blackmeninamerica.com/continued-systemic-discrimination-against-black-farmers/"><span>our recent panel
discussion with the Whistleblowers Conference and Film Festival</span></a><span>.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>We, therefore, would
like for you to stand with us, in concert with our voices to President Biden
(see attached letter of January 19, 2023 and the Proclamation). Specifically,
we ask you to call for a meeting at the White House with President Biden, voice
your concerns for maltreatment of Black farmers and demand that he initiate
systemic changes within USDA to erase racism once and for all. Only then will
there be hope for a brighter future for Black farmers of Texas and the entire country.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Respectfully,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-<i>s</i>-<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Waymon R. Hinson,
Ph.D.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>903-271-4654<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Denison, Texas
75020<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Representative,
Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Representative, Justice
for Black Farmers<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Representative,
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><o:p> <br /></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span>Cc: Lawrence
Lucas, President Emeritus, USDA Coalition of Minority Employees<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative, Justice for Black
Farmers<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative Jasmine Crockett<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jason Rodriguez, Chief of Staff<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brandon
Bradley, Legislative Director<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative Al Green<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Niha Razi, Chief of Staff<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rachel Rodriguez, District Director<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative Sheila Jackson Lee<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <br /> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lillie Coney, Chief of Staff<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yuroba Harris, District Director<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative Colin Allred<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paige Hutchinson, Chief of Staff<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Whitley O’Neal, Legislative Director<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representative Marc Veasy<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Nicole Varner, Chief of Staff<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span> Luke Dube, Legislative Director</span></span></div>
Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-10046215384165194682023-07-12T10:14:00.006-05:002023-07-12T20:15:09.892-05:00I Am A Black Farmer*<p> Sometimes the best way to describe how one feels and thinks is via music, lyrics, and a tune that sticks in your head. Here is a song that has been with me for quite a while. I hope you'll appreciate the words. They came to me a while back while driving down the road. I was driving. I asked my wife to drive so I could write them down. Admittedly, I am not the Black farmer. I am the farmer's friend and advocate. These are words and music to stories I have heard since 1994. The notion of a white guy writing a poem/song about Black farmers still knocks me off balance; however, this is what I heard and those words are from the stories they entrusted to me. </p><p><b>I Am A Black Farmer*</b></p><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer, </div><div style="text-align: left;">You can plainly see;</div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, my skin is Black,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Black as I can be. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I've got a story to tell,</div><div style="text-align: left;">So listen up now,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm as mad as........</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, I am a farmer's wife,</div><div style="text-align: left;">You can plainly see;</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's wife,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Black as I can be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's wife,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We've got a story to tell,</div><div style="text-align: left;">So listen up now,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We're mad as......</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">REFRAIN</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, Mr. Gov'ment man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">What's a wrong with me?</div><div style="text-align: left;">Is it that my skin is Black,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Why you're mistreatin' me?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Gov'ment man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I don't want it all,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want my share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's child,</div><div style="text-align: left;">You can plainly see.</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's child,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Black as I can be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's child,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We've got a story to tell,</div><div style="text-align: left;">So listen up now,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We're mad as......</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">REFRAIN </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, Mr. Justice man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">What's a wrong with us,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Is it that our skin is Black,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Why you're mistreating us?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Justice man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We don't want it all,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want our share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's friend,</div><div style="text-align: left;">As you can plainly see,</div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's friend,</div><div style="text-align: left;">White as I can be.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer's friend,</div><div style="text-align: left;">They've got a story to tell,</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, listen up now,</div><div style="text-align: left;">We're mad as.......</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">REFRAIN</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">What's a wrong with them? </div><div style="text-align: left;">Is it 'cause their skin is Black,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Why you're mistreating them? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">They don't want it all,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want their share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Gov'ment man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When can we talk?</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Justice man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">You gonna make us walk? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When's it going to end?</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When will the change begin? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am a farmer,</div><div style="text-align: left;">As you can plainly see, </div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, my skin is Black,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Black as I can be. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm gonna work this land</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just as long as I can</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gonna work these fields</div><div style="text-align: left;">Until I can't.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">REFRAIN</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Gov'ment man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When can we talk?</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. Gov'ment man,</div><div style="text-align: left;">You gonna make us walk? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When's it goin' to end?</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, Mr. President,</div><div style="text-align: left;">When will the change begin? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want my share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want my share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Just want my share,</div><div style="text-align: left;">Like those white folks there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*Copyright Waymon Hinson</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-63131585454399464502023-07-10T14:37:00.007-05:002023-07-10T17:07:02.185-05:00Call Me a Skeptic: USDA and Funding for Discrimination <p>Call me a skeptic if you wish. It seems that we have been down this road before. The terrain looks terribly familiar and the potholes, they look pretty much the same. </p><p>Many of us are familiar with the machinations of Pigford I and then Pigford II. Though Pigford I was class action suit back in 1999 under the direction of Judge Friedman, it contained a lot of money, a lot of lawyers, and restrictions that made things maddening for Black farmers. For instance, class counsel on the one hand waived discovery, but yet made off like a bandit in terms of money for their services. Again, the demand for Black farmers was to find a "similarly situated" white farmer with whom to compare and contrast so that racism could be proved. Whoever heard and that and who would ever agree to such a requirement? Billions of dollars were paid out to lawyers and to farmers. Most farmers I know wanted debt relief, not the promise of the $50K plus tax relief if settled under Track A or an undetermined amount if settled under Track B. What they wanted was to be relieved from the onerous burden of debt which had been demanded of them despite it being the fault of someone else. Only 371 Black farmers out of 16K actually received debt relief. </p><p>Yes, we've been down this road before. </p><p>Back a few years ago, we thought all was to be settled under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. I wrote about that. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2022/05/vilsack-white-farmers-equity-commission.html">You can check that out here</a>. No need to repeat the same words. The promise of 100% of debt relief plus 20% for taxes was halted in two courts across the land as a result of white farmers saying that they deserved some of that money, too. The key here is "slow walking" and big bank involvement. There is a lawsuit in federal court about these matters. </p><p>Then, President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Again, I wrote a few words about that to President Biden, complete with political satire. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2022/12/dear-mr-president-your-ag-secretary-is.html">You can find them here</a>. No need to repeat them here. Bottom line? White farmers got debt relief as did Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans, but not Black farmers. That was to have been done out of the $3.1B congress appropriated. We know of eleven or so Black farmers who were relieved of their debts. Eleven out of some 2,900 who have loans with USDA? We have moved from Black to Socially Disadvantaged and now to "distressed producers." Who would not qualify? </p><p>Now comes the final focus. Precisely $2.2B has been allocated to those who can prove that they have been discriminated against. I have attended three Zoom calls with the USDA and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Here is a brief summation. </p><p>The web page is now up and running. Check in here for complete details <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2023/07/07/financial-assistance-application-process-opens-usda-farm-loan">here for the announcement</a> and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2023/07/07/financial-assistance-application-process-opens-usda-farm-loan">check in here for next steps</a>. </p><p>Here are a few points of summary: 1) prove you have been discriminated against by filling out required or optional forms, or by supplying them to the hub; 2) a national entity is in charge of it all (is this even legal?); 3) work via one of two hubs in whichever region you reside (they are found in the links above); 4) feel free to get free advise from one of eight "cooperators" that are also found above; 5) this is a free process, so do not go and hire an attorney, but if you do, their fees are your responsibility; 6) the documents may be submitted via portal or copies at a local FSA office; 7) the list of documents required and/or requested is quite lengthy, so get started now; the deadline for submission is October 31; 8) this is not a first come first serve process; 9) all documents of all those who submit will be evaluated and the entity in charge will decide how much you are to receive; 10) the limit for payments is $500K; 11) per the Zoom calls, do not expect anything close to that; 12) the final word is the final word, i.e., there is no appeals process as what you receive is what you receive; 13) this is not a lawsuit process but a compensation model; 14) there are several law firms out in cyberspace wanting your business, for a fee of course, and 15) white farmers' claims have diluted the pool of potential funding. </p><p>There are several potholes in this process. First, if you trust the USDA, do not get legal counsel, but if you do not trust USDA, you might get legal counsel, or you might consider trusting one of the "cooperator" groups, if you see one that you trust, or if you know someone affiliated with them that you trust. </p><p>The most eggregious aspect of the process is that there is no appeals process. Coupled with that, an outside entity decides what your compensation will be. What is offered is the bottom line. Accept it or reject it. I have yet to hear of a complicated process like this that does not have an embedded appezls process. </p><p>I have reviewed the materials. It all looks complicated to me. It is described as a simple do it yourself model. Perhaps it will be simple for many. </p><p>The biggest grief I have with the process is that it was designed back in the day to attempt to level the playing field, one in which white farmers had all of the advantages and Black farmers received less than they deserved. How level is the playing field when Black farmers have lost land and productivity on the land from <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20221015">1920 to 1997 to the tune of $326B</a>? </p><p>So, the world is changing. The Supreme Court has ruled out affirmative action. It looks like similar processes are playing out at USDA. </p><p>And, they ask us to trust them? </p><p>I think we've been down this road before. </p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-47235443982392824942023-07-04T10:16:00.002-05:002023-07-04T10:20:03.477-05:00What is the 4th of July for Me and Those to Whom I am Committed?<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Over on my oldest son's Facebook page, he wrote this this morning. I have seen it before. Seems that he posts it on July 4 each year. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><b>"July 4, 1776: The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress.<br /><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b>July 4, 1837: The first Chickasaw removal party, forced from their lands by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, arrived at Memphis, Tennessee, and were ferried across the Mississippi River into Arkansas, never to see the land of their ancestors again.<br /><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b>July <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>4, 2023: <span style="font-family: inherit;">As usual, I'm struck by the intense, biting irony. A day of celebration and a day of dispossession rolled into one."</span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then we can add January 1, 1863. </span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then we can add June 19, 1865. </span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this week I posted on my own Facebook page these words: </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"You are sending a message to your community when you close your office, church or otherwise, for July 4th, but not June 19th. Maybe more than one message." </b></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many passed right on by, but a few resonated with the comment. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then, I could not help but recall Frederick Douglass' famous speech from July 5, 1853 in his adopted hometown of Rochester, New York, entitled, "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1852-frederick-douglass-what-slave-fourth-july/">The entirety of that short speech is found here. </a></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Here is one pithy statement in large print and bolded because it is important: </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"<span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7)" style="background-color: white; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery—the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be fight and just. But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, their will I argue with you that the slave is a man!"</span></b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7)" style="background-color: white; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then I wonder about today. I see all of the trappings of white American celebrating with BBQ cook outs, baseball games, and fireworks. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">I am left to wonder, how many of white American are reflecting upon America's call for freedom for all, all races, all genders, all colors, all creeds, all nationalities, or deep in our hearts do we assume that American is just for us, those of us who are anglo saxons, white, whatever color white actually is. </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Is today for whom? Is it also for those red-lined across town, those whose medical care is insufficient compared to mine, those who opt not to see an MD before it's too late, or those whose wages are inferior to mine despite similar levels of education? In short, is America, is July 4th, for those who pay the <a href="https://blacktaxed.com/">Black Tax</a> to live in our country? </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Is the 4th of July for those who ancestors walked the Trail of Tears, who were relocated by the federal government to lands that looked nothing like their land? </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Is the 4th of July really for Black farmers of our land, those who have had their land stolen by the machinations and malfeasance of the USDA, those who have had white people lurking about looking to snag it at the lowest price? Remember Eddie and Dorothy Wise? They are two giants, legends, if you will, who typify what I'm talking about. Is the 4th of July for Black farmers who just want to work the land? Those who are holding on, those who are now 1.4% of American's farmers, those who hold some 4.5M acres when once they owned over 19M acres? </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">The 4th of July is a complicated day. Some of us just walk on past it. Others of us stop and ponder. </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">So, on this day, following a week in which the Supreme Court of the US, perhaps one of the most crooked courts ever in our country, some of whom ascended via affirmative action, have worked to deny others the same privilege. The same court that has decided that some get discriminated against and others don't. When is a cake a cake and when is a web page a web page a web page? When do people really get to make their own choices about medical care and who to love? </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Yes, there are many of us for whom July 4th is a day of conflict. Some of us celebrate all they way from June 19 to July 4th. May our Great God grant us wisdom and courage for the living of these days. </div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3205629630826970710.post-31534890135351517282023-06-19T11:37:00.004-05:002023-06-20T10:59:32.038-05:00Once Again On This Sacred Day I Sit and I Ponder <p>Last year at this time, I wrote some words that you can still find here. Maybe they will provide a little context for this post. </p><p><a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2022/06/if-i-had-been-asked.html">You can find them here</a>.</p><p>The church that I belong to, and that is said loosely in this day and age, is part and parcel of the side of the movement shaped by the scholar Alexander Campbell. He had no room for some things and a lot of room for other things. He was all about restoring the New Testament church, and that took on a life of its own. He was extraordinarily for his day and age. </p><p>His partner in all things restoration in the early to mid-1800s was Barton W. Stone. While Campbell was wealthy, Stone not. They were on opposite ends of the economic and the theological spectra. While Campbell was wanting to "restore the church," Stone was wanting to influence the church toward a way of living in the world. With his apocalyptic vision, he likely would have been in the social justice movement of the 1960s. Stone also took his own version of a vow of poverty. He was as poor as Campbell was rich. <br /></p><p>It is curious that while Campbell's influence came strongly up the wealthier churches, and many in the South, there were also some in the north. Largely speaking, churches of Christ was a southern movement, and with the southern movement came interests in things that southerners wanted: states rights, slavery, and wealth. At least that's what the wealthy folk wanted. Take any map of the 1860s and locate the density of slavery juxtaposed with wealth and cotton, and you'll see what I mean. </p><p>My denomination did not care for Martin Luther King, Jr., nor the Civil Rights Movement. Social gospel is a bad phrase, social justice is a creation of left-wing marxists who want to take over our country. CRT and DEI and books are of the devil and those left-wing marxists. </p><p>So, I should not be surprised when my congregation and my denomination opts not to care nor even mention Juneteenth. After all, saving souls is the main thing and what does Juneteenth have to do with saving souls? Actually, it has a lot to do with the health and welfare and lived experiences of Black Americans. The gospel is pond-water weak unless it connects with people's lived experiences. </p><p>So, today, I'll just live in my disappointment. I also live in the joy and worship services where Juneteenth was emphasized, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, and the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. </p><p>I'll go back and re-read what I wrote on this day a year ago. Will also read a few other things that are important. </p><p>As white Americans, there are some things to learn about Juneteenth and its people:</p><p>1) If we want to be anti-racist, learn about this holiday, and learn what it means to those who celebrate it whole heartedly today. </p><p>2) Do you own work, and do not depend upon Black friends to be our teachers. Give them a break. </p><p>3) Read good literature about the holiday starting with Kendi and Tisby. </p><p>4) Realize that whatever we learned in school about Juneteenth was just a thumb-nail sketch of what really was experienced by the people yearning to be free. </p><p>5) Realize that those of us and our families who have forever been free, are clueless about people who protested before they set foot on the slave ship, during the Middle Passage, after the ships came into American waters, and every day under the scorching sun across the South as they made money for people who cared nothing about them except to earn them the next dollar from cotton sales. </p><p>6) Understand that there are different degrees of freedom. There is freedom from the lash and bondage to enslavers, but then there are Black taxes, Black codes, lynchings, the Great Migration, red-lining, and all manner of other things in your community. There is the onslaught of macroaggressions and microaggressions. </p><p>7) Know that just because your white leaders say, "We have no racial issues in this town," that they are probably wrong. Get to know over the course of time your Black brothers and sisters, and when the time is right, ask them, "Are there racial problems in this town?"</p><p>8). Understand that while you and I may never have own people, or our people may have never owned other people, that we benefit by structures designed to reward us. </p><p>9) Wrap you head around the notion of the fact that we are just now coming to officially honor Juneteenth in all of its glory, and Republican congresses across the country are working hard to stamp out CRT (which they are uninformed about), DEI, books by important authors, and other things. How can Juneteenth be important when Black authors who lived in those hard days of the '30s and '40s be ignored and marginalized? </p><p>10) They myth is that Black Americans were immediately free. The true and brutal story is that enslavers wanted them around for a few more harvests. Those who took their freedom were likely to have faced the KKK or patrolers or other painful realities of enslavement. So, no, June 19, 1865 did not immediately bring about freedom. It was a start, and a painful one in which it took years to get where we are now as a country. <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/real-history-of-juneteenth-messier/">Check out this article for more details</a>. </p><p>11) Do what you can to make the world a better place, a place of equity and inclusion, a place where anti-racism lives on. Read a book written by a Black author, buy from local Black-own businesses, and contribute to Black-led organizations. </p><p>12) Occasionally step out of our whiteness. I wrote about that in days on by. <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2018/04/blind-i-was-until-i-could-see.html">You can read that here</a> and <a href="https://letjusticering.blogspot.com/2020/06/swimming-in-sea-of-whiteness_19.html">on this page as well. </a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Waymon http://www.blogger.com/profile/17592364206146485268noreply@blogger.com0